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> One thing I find rather frustrating about YouTube’s redesign (on desktop) is that it devotes so much screen real estate to promoting videos other than the one

> One thing I find rather frustrating about YouTube’s redesign (on desktop) is that it devotes so much screen real estate to promoting videos other than the one you’re actually there to watch. I’d prefer fewer distractions. The F key is your friend. It puts the video full screen. You don't even have to find the full screen icon at the bottom right of the video, just hit F.

brookst 2y ago
But I don’t want full screen, I want it to take up the full window that I have allocated to the browser, while still allowing me to multitask in other windows.
- nulbyte 2y ago
  I love Firefox's picture-in-picture mode for this exact reason. I think there is an extension for Chrome also.
  - hombre_fatal 2y ago
    It's in Chrome natively. But in Youtube you have to right click on the video twice. First to trigger the Javascript context menu, and again to trigger the native one which will have the "Picture in picture" option. And there are actually two different native context menus, so if the PiP one doesn't pop up, you might have to try multiple times. Very weird UX instead of just giving us a PiP button under the video.
    - jmb99 2y ago
      It’s not weird UX when you consider why it’s so hidden: to increase “engagement” metrics (i.e. make it more likely for you to click on other videos, view/interact with ads/etc). Same reason the feature is unavailable on iOS (even though it’s been natively supported by the OS for years), unless you pay whatever google wants for a premium YouTube subscription.
      - ytwySXpMbS 2y ago
        There’s a great app called PiPifier, which allows you to use PiP for free on iOS.
    - clearleaf 2y ago
      That behaviour is so weird that it feels like an oversight. It's like we're not supposed to be able to access those options at all. A lot of people are explaining it by saying PIP mode lowers engagement so they hide it. But then why have that as a built in feature at all?
- luyu_wu 2y ago
  Maybe try the T key for theater mode!
- davisoneee 2y ago
  You can make firefox fullscreen _within the window_ by changing a flag in about:config ... full-screen-api.ignore-widgets (set to true) then, when you press `F` on a video, you will remove all firefox 'decoration', just like fullscreen mode, but it'll respect whatever position and size you have set for the browser.
  - epiccoleman 2y ago
    That's a truly excellent tip, I definitely need to go tweak that setting.
    - davisoneee 2y ago
      As an additional tip, if you want to get rid of the "You are now fullscreen" (or whatever it says) that comes across the top... you can set the following to 0 full-screen-api.transition-duration.enter full-screen-api.transition-duration.leave full-screen-api.transition-duration.timeout full-screen-api.warning.delay full-screen-api.warning.timeout these are all involved in the popup when you fullscreen a video
  - brookst 2y ago
    What a wonderful but bizarrely named feature flag. Thank you!
- Akronymus 2y ago
  For me, this extension works quite well https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bettertheatre/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bettertheatre...
- gbalduzzi 2y ago
  this is my greatest nitpick. Any website with a video player should include a "full window" control
- 57FkMytWjyFu 2y ago
  Windowed - floating Youtube/every website' avail for firefox or chrome. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/windowed/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/windowed/ https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/windowed-floating-youtube/gibipneadnbflmkebnmcbgjdkngkbklb https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/windowed-floating-y...

brookst 2y ago

But I don’t want full screen, I want it to take up the full window that I have allocated to the browser, while still allowing me to multitask in other windows.

nulbyte 2y ago
I love Firefox's picture-in-picture mode for this exact reason. I think there is an extension for Chrome also.
- hombre_fatal 2y ago
  It's in Chrome natively. But in Youtube you have to right click on the video twice. First to trigger the Javascript context menu, and again to trigger the native one which will have the "Picture in picture" option. And there are actually two different native context menus, so if the PiP one doesn't pop up, you might have to try multiple times. Very weird UX instead of just giving us a PiP button under the video.
  - jmb99 2y ago
    It’s not weird UX when you consider why it’s so hidden: to increase “engagement” metrics (i.e. make it more likely for you to click on other videos, view/interact with ads/etc). Same reason the feature is unavailable on iOS (even though it’s been natively supported by the OS for years), unless you pay whatever google wants for a premium YouTube subscription.
    - ytwySXpMbS 2y ago
      There’s a great app called PiPifier, which allows you to use PiP for free on iOS.
  - clearleaf 2y ago
    That behaviour is so weird that it feels like an oversight. It's like we're not supposed to be able to access those options at all. A lot of people are explaining it by saying PIP mode lowers engagement so they hide it. But then why have that as a built in feature at all?
luyu_wu 2y ago
Maybe try the T key for theater mode!
davisoneee 2y ago
You can make firefox fullscreen _within the window_ by changing a flag in about:config ... full-screen-api.ignore-widgets (set to true) then, when you press `F` on a video, you will remove all firefox 'decoration', just like fullscreen mode, but it'll respect whatever position and size you have set for the browser.
- epiccoleman 2y ago
  That's a truly excellent tip, I definitely need to go tweak that setting.
  - davisoneee 2y ago
    As an additional tip, if you want to get rid of the "You are now fullscreen" (or whatever it says) that comes across the top... you can set the following to 0 full-screen-api.transition-duration.enter full-screen-api.transition-duration.leave full-screen-api.transition-duration.timeout full-screen-api.warning.delay full-screen-api.warning.timeout these are all involved in the popup when you fullscreen a video
- brookst 2y ago
  What a wonderful but bizarrely named feature flag. Thank you!
Akronymus 2y ago
For me, this extension works quite well https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bettertheatre/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bettertheatre...
gbalduzzi 2y ago
this is my greatest nitpick. Any website with a video player should include a "full window" control
57FkMytWjyFu 2y ago
Windowed - floating Youtube/every website' avail for firefox or chrome. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/windowed/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/windowed/ https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/windowed-floating-youtube/gibipneadnbflmkebnmcbgjdkngkbklb https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/windowed-floating-y...